Maybe so...

At least there is some doubt creeping into my mind. This coming Sunday, August 10 I will race the Duathlon Long Distance World Championships in Geel, Belgium. Distances are 18 km run, 74 km bike & 9 km run.

The whole course is Pancake flat so it will be very very fast paced and a huge difference from the Roller Coaster course we raced in France a couple of weeks ago.

Since this is an elite race I am starting to worry that maybe I'll be dead last in my age group, M 40 - 44.... The first run will be a challenge as it's quite long and people usually tend to start very fast. My strategy is to run a hard but controlled pace and save myself a bit. Then I will try to just hammer as much as I can on the bike as that's my strength and then hold on for dear life in the last run...

More info about the race on http://douwen.sin.khk.be/wkduathlon2008/index2.php?taal=en&pagina=home

You can even follow it live on: http://live.3athlon.be

Later ;-)

Our good friends from our time in Austin, Kurt & Linda who are now retired and living in Buenos Aires, Argentina are in town to visit Linda's sister Judy who lives in Stockholm since many many years.

On Monday we hooked up for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant Koh Phagnan on Sodermalm (Stockholm's equivalent of SoCo :-) )

Besides really great food the interior is also something else, the whole place is decked out like a Thai jungle with Palm Trees, Bungalow's & even fish in a pond!  To top it off there's also a huge thunderstorm about once every hour.  Kurt freaked out and almost fell off his chair....

As you can see Kurt & Linda loved the experience. It always works to take visitors here. Anders, you're NEXT!!!! ;-)

Hearing the stories about life in Buenos Aires made us want to jump on the first plane there!!! Especially since it was pouring rain outside the whole evening....

July 14 through July 20: 

Monday, July 14:  no training. drove from Sweden to France...

Tuesday, July 15:  38 min run around Luscan France.  Easy warmup then ~ 3 miles @ 6:45 pace before cool down.

Wednesday, July 16:  2hr 55 min ride at medium to hard effort for 44.6 miles avg 15 mph.  Rode 'Col de Mente' loop around Luscan.  in Total 5000 feet of climbing and hairy descents with carbon race wheels and a 11 - 21 cassette...  Wrong gearing....

Thursday, July 17:  2 hr 45 min same loop with Clive Cooper + 15 min run.

Friday, July 18:  2 hr 30 min flat, easy ride for 40 miles with Dragana to Luchon. 

Sautrday, July 19:  1hr 25 min easy ride with Dragana on flat roads.

Sunday, July 20:  5hrs 32 min total.  20 min warmup jog,  5hrs 12 min race (1.35 run (55 + 40 min) & 3hrs 37 min bike)


Total for the week: 14hrs 45min

July 21 through July 27:

Monday, July 21:  All in all we rode 1 hr 25 minutes at a pleasant pace of ~ 24 km/h // ~ 15 mph.  Recovery ride...

Tuesday, July 22:  4 hr 35 min ride covering about 77 miles and avg ca 16.5 mph.   45 min evening run, covering almost a full 10k.    Tot for the day:  5hrs 20min

Wednesday, July 23:  6 hrs & 17 min and covered 146 km / 90.5 miles and climbed a total of 2520 meters / 8400 feet.

Thursday, July 24:  2 hours relatively easy morning ride via Barbazan & Aspet.  1 hour run in the evening.  Tot for the day: 3 hrs

Friday, July 25:  Port de Bales loop, 87.2 km /  54.2 miles, 3hrs 45 min, climbed a total of 1500 meters / 5000 feet.  50 minute run off bike at 45 min 10k pace.  Tot for the day:  4hrs 35 min

Saturday, July 26:  Col du Tourmalet loop; 166 km / 103 miles miles long that took just over  
7 hours and 5 minutes to complete after climbing a total of 3000 meters / 10,000 feet.

Sunday, July 27;  No training. Drove to Sweden

Total for the week:  26hrs 57min


Tot for 7 day period July 20 through July 26:  32 hrs 31 min.    A new PR by > 15 hrs....

Despite the big volume I feel suprisingly fresh... Starting to get in shape?!????

With a bit of perspective and after having done some rides in Sweden since coming back, it is abundantly clear that the riding in the Pyrenees is truly Awesome!!!

* Endless variety - Big Mountains, Big Hills, rolling terrain or flat roads. Anything you want is there! A massive network of small country roads allows you to change up your routes endlessly.

* Little or no traffic on the small roads

* Considerate & patient drivers. Yes you read it right! I have never before experienced drivers who go to such great lengths to make sure they exercise care when pasing a cyclist. Then when they finally do pass you on a small mountain road, they honk once to let you know they are coming. Simply brilliant, you feel super safe and feel like a star!  There are even signs telling drivers to allow 4 feet of space when passing a rider...

* The scenery is great whether you are rolling through a picturesque little village or when riding in the big mountains, there is always something to see.

* The hospitality! We stayed at a small Bed & Breakfast called "Pyrenees Multisport" in Luscan that is run by an English couple, Julie and Ian Wright who cater specifically to Cyclists & Triathletes etc. They are simply awesome and have a great feel for catering to your every need. On top of that the prices are extremely affordable, as low as 30 Euros per night including Breakfast..... We will be back!

* The Tour de France.... You ride in the morning, come back to the house and watch the stage of the day. Then maybe a run after that. We even saw Stage 11 live as it rolled through the neighboring village, Barbazan.

Can't beat that...

Woke up and the sky was all grey....  Rain in the air.  Not good as today was THE day.  The day when I was going to attack the Biggest & Baddest climb in the area the "Beyond Category"   2115 meter  /  7050 feet high  Col du Tourmalet. After the Alpe de Huez this is the most famed climb of the Tour and was done on stage 10 of this years Tdf.

I was not going to go home without doing this climb....

Thankfully the wether turned a bit better once I rolled out at 11:00.

Todays ride was an epic 166 km / 103 miles miles long that took just over   7 hours and 5 minutes to complete after climbing a total of 3000 meters / 10,000 feet.

First real climb of the day was the Col d Aspin, this time I did it from the same side as Tdf Stage 9. While the summit is 'only' at 1490 meters / 4967 feet it is a pretty tough climb and no doubt a good warmup for the Tourmalet...  Amazing to see all the 'art work' the Tdf fans have laid down on the ground!  In some parts the road was almost white due to all the cheerful words for their favorite riders. Mostly for the Spanish guys and of course also the French. Not a single mention of Riccop or Piepoli. Thank god for that.  (The only Ricco grafitti we saw was in Barbazan where there was also a big EPO addition after his name.....)

Going down the Aspin was fantastic, loved that descent and hit 80+ km/h  /  > 50 mph a few times, even while turning...  Stopped at the bottom for a quick refill of drinks before heading for the Tourmalet.

The Col du Tourmalet is a 16 km / 10 mile long climb, and it doesn't seem that bad the first three four km where it is only a 3 to 4.5% gradient.  That doesn't last long though.... Pretty soon the average grading per kilometer was 8 - 9 %. Still felt OK, and the wether was holding up decently.  That was about to end too...

About halfways up it started getting colder and the visibility deteriorated by every turn it semed.  Now there were more and more kilometers where the average gradient was 9.5 or 10%.  Ok for a little while, but not when it carries on for > 8 km /  > 5 miles....  The last 2.5  km / 1.5 miles  were easily the hardest I have ever climbed and there were more than one  occasion  when I thought I'd stop and walk... Thankfully I was able to muster some confidence.  Just the thought of Dragana calling me weak and a quitter kept me going!

Finally reached the top at  2115 meter  /  7050 feet where it was F****ng COLD,  4 C / 38 F and almost no visibility as you can see from the pictures.

I wasn't very tired and could easily have kept on riding, but being WET and COLD when you have a 16 km / 10 mile descent to look forward to, I opted to visit the little cafe at the summit.  Well there I had my first Coke in over 4 years, and that tasted very good.  Got an awesome sugar rush as I also had two Crepes which the French drown in sugar!

Before heading out the door in my now only sogy clothes I padded my front - and backside with newspapers, almost like a pro ;-)   Must have looked like Robocop, but it felt nice with some dry layers to break the wind!

First 5 km of the descent were very slow as the visibility was almost non existent and I also had to dodge the locals, Goats and Cows, that freely wandering about on the road.  Cars were not a concern as they were going even slower than me!

Once at the bottom of the descent the skies clered up and it also got a bit warmer. Thank you very much!!! 

Now I just had about 40% the ride left, but as I was done with the mountains I figured  this will be easy. Which it was for about 25 km / 17 miles where I wascrusing along at 35 km/h /  22 mph and feling prety good about my day...

That was until I hit Mauvezin and Capvern.  For about 30 km the road either went up or down.  Felt mostly uphill, although the descent into Mauvezin, before the climbing started was AWESOME...  About 3 - 4.5 % consistent gradient curving its way   along through the forest on a deserted road.  I was attacking the turns at about 70 km / h /  45 mph and feling like  Pro....

I did NOT feel like a Pro any longer once the looooooong climbing started...

Finally got back to Luscan again and by now my legs were like Jello...

Had a very large bowl of risotto and 4 bottles of mineral water. Then I fell asleep on the couch.... 

Aaaahhhhhh... After going to sleep at 8:30 pm last night, I felt soooo much better today!!!  :-)

Did the Port de Bales loop which is 87.2 km /  54.2 miles long in 3hrs 45 min, climbed a total of 1500 meters / 5000 feet.  Pretty much all of this climbing was going up the Port de Bales with the summit at 1755 meters / 5850 feet.  

This is a very tough climb with a max gradient of 11.1 % and average around 8.5 %.  For some strange reason it has rarely been used in the Tour which beats me as it is absolutely beatuiful.

Did a 50 minute run right after the ride and felt GREAT, what a difference a day makes!!! 

Woke up and felt like CRAP today....

Had originally planned to do a 2 hour easy ride on flat roads and then tack on a 2 hour run right after.  

Went out and did 2 hours relatively easy vid Barbazan, Apet etc but didn't feel any better.  The body said NFW about the 2 hour run...  retreated to the couch and watched the tour in the afternoon.

Then tried to do a 1 hour run in the evening.  Without going in to any details, the run was literally shit.  Had to make 3 pitstops along the way...

Not a good day. Better luck tomorrow!!! 

Big ride today with lots of Mountains... All in all I did 6 hrs & 17 min and covered 146 km / 90.5 miles and climbed a total of 2520 meters / 8400 feet.

Started from Luscan and rode south towards the beautiful little SPA town of Luchon and then directly up the Col de Peyersourde a Category 1 climb that featured on Stage 9 of this years Tour de France. Beautiful climb with an average gradient of about 8%. Stopped at the top and had to Crepes, yummie...

Continued on the Tdf Stage 9 route down towards Arreau, but just before the village I peeled off south to add another climb. This Col which name now escapes me started in the village of Ancizan and the whole way up to about 1800 meters / 6000 feet was done on an extremely narrow road with no barriers on either side. Breathtakingly beautiful, quite literally.... Several sections that were 11 - 12 % grade. Extremely hard but thankfully I did the climb with a French dude who had also done the Duathlon in Fos the other day.

Well at the top of this climb I hit a pretty gentle descent on a very smooth road. By now I am really starting to enjoy the descents, even though you have to exercise extreme caution... At the bottom I ended up with the monstrous Col de Tourmalet to the west and the reverse side (in terms of Stage 9 direction that is...) of Col d Aspin. The original plan was to "just" shuffle over the back of the Aspin and roll home but for a minute i toyed with the idea of doing the Tourmalet now as the weather was great. In the end I wisened up and did the Aspin as i was already half ways up....

All in all a great ride and despite the length I felt very fresh when i got back to the house in Luscan!